


Daddy's duty

by smkkbert



Series: The adventures of parenting teenagers [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Daddy!Oliver, F/M, Future AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:33:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6093229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smkkbert/pseuds/smkkbert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anonymous said: I was watching a TV show, and a father was freaking out when his daughter got her menstrual cycle, and I found it hilarious. I then started thinking about how Oliver would react about Emmy getting hers. Maybe write a one-shot about it? (Tumblr prompt this was inspired by)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daddy's duty

Nervously Oliver tapped the tips of his fingers of his left hand on the kitchen counter, starting with his pinky and ending with the thumb. He tried calling Felicity once more, but still she didn’t pick up. She had to still be in her meeting in New York; like she had probably been in her meeting there when he had called the last… eighteen times during the last thirty minutes.

Why was he nervous? He had no reason to be nervous because he really was a good dad. He was actually an amazing dad like Felicity always told him or even the world’s best daddy like a dozen of coffee mugs in the cupboard told. Tommy had just been five months when he had given up his position at Queen Incorporated to be a stay-at-home-dad instead. So he had basically dedicated the last ten years of his life to being a father, only interrupted for Felicity’s maternity leave. He was an experienced father! There was no reason for him to be nervous!

Only that his daughter was twelve years old now, and puberty had slowly snuck its way into her or rather their lives, and Oliver felt like his little baby girl was slowly drifting away from him. She preferred spending her time with her friends than with her dad, and when there were things that bugged her she would shut herself away all day until Felicity was coming back from work, so she could ask her mother to go upstairs with her and have some girl-talk.

Oliver wasn’t an idiot. He knew that puberty changed some things in the relationship between child and parents and especially between daughter and father. Emmy wasn’t his little baby girl anymore. She wasn’t the five-year-old that crawled onto his lap when watching movies and preferred sleeping in her parent’s bed, snuggled up to her daddy’s chest. Neither was she the nine-year-old that discussed each of her problems regarding friends and school with him in all seriousness.

She was a twelve-year-old now, and she was in puberty.  
And she needed her mom more than her dad.

Screw that, Oliver thought. He put his phone down on the kitchen counter and turned around on his heels. He was a good dad, and even if Emmy needed her mom more than him right now, he was the parent being here, so he had to use the… what was it called in that movie about the football player who suddenly had to take care of his daughter? Emmy had loved watching that movie when she had been younger. Right! He had to use the power of the father.

When he reached the door to the bathroom where Emmy had locked herself in while he had been putting her siblings to bed and hadn’t come out since, he lifted his fist to knock. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves, before he actually knocked.

“Em?” he whispered only loud enough for her to hear, but not too loud to wake the younger kids. “Are you alright, hon?”

“I’m fine,” the answer followed.

Her voice was only quiet, but Oliver could hear the tense tone nonetheless. He pressed his lips together, desperately thinking about the right thing to say. He didn’t want to push her, but he also didn’t want to just let go. He knew something was bothering her.

“Em, please open the door,” he asked.

“Why?”

“Because…”  
I am your dad and tell you to? – too harsh.  
I am not ready for you to grow up and want to hug you close and never let go? – too sappy.  
“Just… please.”

For a while everything was silent, and Oliver wondered if she had lost consciousness or if she had snuck out of the window because that would have definitely been something he would have done when he had been her age. But then he heard a silent hiss, followed by an even quieter sob that she was surely trying to suppress.

“Em, please open the door,” Oliver asked again.

“No,” she replied. “Dad, I am -“

“Don’t say fine,” he interrupted her a little harshly before she got to say it, and he hastily took in a deep breath to calm his nerves down. “Please, Em. I am… I am worried. Please open the door.”

When he heard movement behind the locked door, he released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding until then. He heard the clicking of the door being unlocked and carefully took a step back, giving her a little more room, but she didn’t open. He waited for five long seconds before he put his hand to the door handle.

“Can I come in?”

“Yes.”

He kept himself from tearing open the door and instead opened it slowly. His heart dropped a little when he saw his oldest daughter sitting on the rim of the bathtub with slumped shoulders and lowered head. Her arms were wrapping tightly around her stomach. He hated seeing her like that.

“Everything alright?” he asked but frowned at his own words. “Well, obviously you are not alright because you have been locking yourself in here for almost an hour now and you look a little pale and actually crappy… Okay, I know that was not helpful and not a nice thing to say at all, but-“

“You sound like mom,” Emmeline interrupted him, a weak smile playing on her lips.

“Well, somebody needs to decrease the tension with some good babble, and since mom isn’t here, I guess that is my job and-“

Oliver stopped when his daughter bent forward, wrapping her arms around her middle a little more tightly. Her face was screwed up in pain, so he slid a little closer to her and put a supporting hand to her elbow.

“Em?”

“I am… I’ve… I’m bleeding.”

“What?” Oliver asked, worriedly looking down to where her arms were wrapped around her stomach. “What…? Are you…? Are you hurt?”

“No, I-“ Emmy started answering but stopped, her face turning red. “How long will mom’s meeting take?”

“I don’t know. Could be long,” Oliver answered, his frown deepening. “Em, what’s-“

“I’m on my first period,” it bubbled out of her, and her face turned even redder. “I am on my first period. And it hurts. And I don’t know what to do because I tried to use mom’s tampons, but they feel uncomfortable, and mom’s not here and I-“

Before Oliver really knew he was doing, he had his arms already wrapped around his daughter and was hugging her tightly to his chest. He cradled her face to his shoulder and rubbed her back comfortingly, kissing her hair gently like he had done since she was a little baby, and he had held her for the first time.

He was so relieved. Before she had let him in, he had already imagined the worst. He had thought that she had gotten her heart broken, or that someone had hurt her otherwise. It would have all been things he wasn’t sure he could have dealt with.

This however he could deal with. He had been married for a while now. Felicity had been on so many periods during their relationship and marriage, he knew what to do. First periods were maybe a little bit different, but there were certainly still some similarities. He could deal with this.

“How about you lie down on the couch with a heating pad to watch a good movie, and I will head to the pharmacy and get you a few things?”

“You really want to go to the pharmacy and buy sanitary pads for me?”

“And some analgesics against the pain,” Oliver said with a nod of his head. “And since I will pass the small grocery on my way to the pharmacy anyway, I will also buy some chocolate.”

“Isn’t that… embarrassing?”

Oliver chuckled. “Em, you have no idea how many times I bought tampons and analgesics for your mom. And there is nothing embarrassing about your period. It’s only a sign that you are a healthy and fertile woman and-“

“Oh my god!” Emmy interrupted him loudly, jumping up from the edge of the bathtub with her hands put on top of her ears. “What the hell-?!”

“Google says it’s important to tell a girl who’s on her first period that it’s a step on the way of becoming a woman, so she can accept it as part of her and-“

“You googled how to react to my first period?” Emmy asked.

Oliver shrugged his shoulders, puckering her lips. “I wanted to be prepared if the time came.”

Emmy opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came out. She seemed to have no words. After a short while she sat back on the edge of the bathtub next to him, saying, “Mom would be proud you figured out how to use google.”

“I don’t know why everyone thinks that I can’t do that?”

“Maybe because every time you’ve been on mom’s laptop or tablet, it crushes for days until she has time to fix whatever you broke.”

“Okay, no chocolate for you,” Oliver replied mockingly, but he rubbed her back gently at the same time. “Come on, we go downstairs. I’ll go get a bed sheet to put over the cushions, and I will take care that you are comfortable before I go shopping what you need.”

Just like he had promised, Oliver made sure Emmeline was completely comfortable. He made her a cup of cacao with extra cream, put the heating pat on her stomach and wrapped the blanket around her like he had done when she had been younger and sick. He resisted the urge to press a kiss to her forehead, reminding himself that she was no little girl anymore.

“Anything else you need before I head to the store?”

“No. I’m fine. Thanks, dad.”

“Sure,” Oliver replied.

Instead of turning around and walking away he stayed where he was for a little longer, just looking at her. He felt a weight tugging at his heart a little.

“Dad?”

“Hm?”

“Everything alright?”

“No,” Oliver replied with a sigh. “I just realized once more that you’re a young lady and not my little baby girl anymore.”

Emmy looked at him for a moment before she replied, “I think it is time for mom to come back. Whenever she leaves for longer than two days, you become extremely sappy.”

Oliver chuckled and massaged the back of his neck with his hand. He hated when Felicity wasn’t home. In all the years he had never gotten used to her not being there.

“When your siblings wake up, you know what to do, and I’ll be back in a flash, so I-“

“Dad, Uncle Barry is the only one to ever be back in a flash.”

“There might be some truth in that. I’ll hurry. See you later, sweetheart.”

“See you.”

He grabbed his wallet, his phone and his keys and headed to the door.

“Dad?” Emmy asked, and Oliver turned around and looked at her. She hesitated before she stated, “I think in some ways I will always be your little baby girl. Well, maybe not baby girl but at least your little girl.”

Oliver smiled happily, his whole heart warming at his daughter’s words. Years ago he had said similar words to her mother. _You will always be my girl, Felicity_. Hearing his daughter saying those words… it meant so much.

“Glad to hear that,” he replied with a smile and pointed his finger at the door, telling her that he was leaving now.

He had barely put his foot out of the door when his phone rang. Closing the door behind him, he pulled his phone from the back pocket of his jeans and smiled when he saw his wife’s name on the display.

“Hey, hon.”

“Did you really tell our daughter that her period is a sign that she is a healthy and fertile woman now?”

“How do you know that?”

“Oliver, my name is Overwatch; I know everything.”

He chuckled, but it ended in a sigh. “I just wanted her to know that her period is something normal and actually something good, and it is part of growing up. I didn’t want her to be disgusted by the change of her body. I know it was a little-“

“Don’t worry,” Felicity interrupted him gently. “According to our daughter you have been pretty amazing.”

“She told you?”

“Our daughter tells me everything, Oliver. Anyway, I am on my way to the airport already. So I should be home in a few hours.”

“I am very glad to hear that,” Oliver said and got into the car. “I have to hang up now. I need to get Emmy pads and analgesics and maybe some chocolate.”

“Did I ever tell you how proud I am of you?”

“Sometimes,” Oliver said with a wide smile. “Never hurts to hear it.”

“I am very, very proud of you.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Will you send me a message to let me know when to pick you up from the airport?”

“I’d rather have you take care of Emmy.”

“Sure. I can’t wait to see you, though.”

“I miss you, too. Only a few more hours. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

When Oliver hung up, he sighed in relief.

Felicity was coming home.  
Emmy had opened up to him about a life-change development.

This had been a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> My ask box is always open for prompts. :)  
> You can find me on tumblr under the same name.


End file.
